Property Taxes in the Town of Palm Beach

Real estate values are going up and along with it, so are tax revenues. Here’s a round up of recent stories:

Number of Palm Beach estates with $500,000 tax bills just keeps growing

Welcome to the latest edition of the $500,000 Tax Club in Palm Beach — although we’re not sure anyone would really want to be a member.

Yet since last year, 11 more island property owners have seen their total property-tax bills vault the $500,000 mark. In all, at least 51 taxpayers — a record number — landed in that tax category, based on an exclusive analysis by the Palm Beach Daily News of the 2018 tax rolls, which were finalized in October.

Last year, 40 owners were mailed bills above $500,000. The overall increase this year is mainly a factor of rising property values in what has been an active real estate market, even though the overall tax rate was set slightly lower this year.

Who pays the highest property taxes in Palm Beach?

Why Palm Beach County public schools’ tax rate keeps falling

Most of Palm Beach County’s local governments have had the good fortune to keep their property tax rates steady in recent years, allowing them to bring in more money through rising home values without a formal vote to hike taxes.

But there’s a striking exception: the county’s public schools, whose tax rate has dropped 20 percent since 2011.

The school district is alone among the county’s large local governments in seeing such drastic cuts to its tax rate. The reductions have been great news for the county’s property owners, but they have made life far more difficult for the public schools.

In just the past three years, the school board’s total property tax rate has fallen from $7.51 per $1,000 of taxable value to $6.57 per $1,000 of taxable value. That three-year drop means an estimated $181 million less in taxes that will be collected this year for the county’s public schools.

Lawmakers adopt ‘positive’ long-range financial forecast

Florida lawmakers adopted a new long-range financial forecast on Friday that could bode well when they meet next spring to write a new state budget.

The financial outlook, which was adopted unanimously by the Legislative Budget Commission, projects a $223 million surplus for the next budget year, which begins July 1. It is a modest surplus, representing only 0.6 percent of the estimated $34.6 billion in general revenue projected for next year.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, who chairs the joint budget panel of House and Senate members, said the positive numbers are a sign of Florida’s strong economy and the “conservative financial decisions” made by lawmakers.